the.[ED]ition

During my first few days in Tokyo, I got lost…a lot. In fact, I got so lost one day that I ended up in a completely different part of the city. I don’t know how it happened but I started in Shinjuku and ended up in Harajuku, which is a few stops on the JR Yamamote line.

The good news is that I know my way around quite well now and even figured out the absurd Japanese address system that I’m almost entirely sure no one understands. No, there’s no such thing as street numbers here…or even street names most of the time. Each area of town is divided up and then each one of those sections is divided up again and given numbers…and each building block (not each building) is given another number. For example…the rental agency for my apartment is located at 7-2-6 Nishi-Shinjuku.

Anyways, Harajuku isn’t a bad place to get lost in, especially if you like clothing. All the big streetwear brands have a store in the area, including A Bathing Ape, Supreme, Neighborhood, Undercover, BBC, Stussy and plenty more. Of course, if you’re into high fashion, there’s Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, etc down the street in Aoyama.

I’m not going to say I haven’t been lost since but…I haven’t been this lost.

There was damned well no way I was going to go on opening day. Unlike the hundreds of people that lined up for the Apple store opening on Saturday, I wasn’t about to waste my time for a t-shirt. I’d much rather go have Pho and be stupid with my friends. However, I didn’t have a lot to do today so after hitting up Livestock and Subdivision, I drove over to Pacific Center to see what all the fuss was about.

Vancouver’s Apple store is a bit smaller than the ones I’ve seen in the States but the layout is roughly the same with lines of MacBooks, iMacs and iPods for everyone to play with. There was also a wall just spilling over with iPod accessories.

But then again, nothing we haven’t already seen. It’s not like Vancouver was particularly deprived of Apple merchandise since we have several large retail stores dedicated to Apple, even if they weren’t officially sanctioned by Steve Jobs himself or whatever.

I did have to do the stereotypical blogger move on a public computer, though.

I also went to check out the other massively hyped store opening at Pacific Center which is H&M. Apparently there’s another H&M out in Coquitlam or something but who can be bothered to go that far? In case you don’t know, H&M is a Swedish clothing store famous for being inexpensive similar to Old Navy. I went in expecting $10 shirts and other disposable clothing but prices are actually closer to what you’d expect at…say…The Gap, with shirts around $50, ties around the same and various t-shirts, shorts, etc around $15-30.

They do, however, sell skinny ties, which are all I wear these days. Big ties just seem so…old. Most of the clothes in there wasn’t really my cup of tea but even the few items that were…well, I wasn’t about to get in the gigantic line for the changing rooms. All this hype for averagely-priced, average clothing?

I have enough shoes but part of me wants to buy these anyways. However, in the same way, I’m torn in regard to their appearance. Part of me thinks these are freakin’ sick and look like nothing I’ve ever seen but at the same time, actually wearing them might look…well, at bit ridiculous. Either way, I’m sure they’re insanely limited and will disappear from shelves almost immediately when they hit Livestock probably by the end of the month.

No, I didn’t buy this…it’s not my picture (I would’ve done a better job…). Heck, I don’t think you CAN buy it yet even if, for some reason, you actually wanted to.

Yes, I own a few items from A Bathing Ape but there comes a point when the offbeat, kitschiness of their designs just become ridiculous. I was on board with the Shark hoodie since it was…different. Heck, the Tiger hoodie looked awesome until I saw the full design sans Kanye West sunglasses (after which point it looked like someone had eaten a bag of Cheetos and threw up on it). But once they got to the Fish, I knew the idea was dead. I do like the detail with the bamboo (if you hold your hand to the panda’s mouth, it looks like it’s eating bamboo…) but the whole full-zip thing is over. Still, despite what I assume is a price tag upward of $400, I imagine these will sell like celebrity sex tapes.

So, if you have the strange urge to make John Chow fastball some rocks at your face on sight…

Picture from HypeBeast.

I’ve been out of class and done finals for awhile now but I actually had one last take home essay to write for today. As I usually end up doing, I left it til the last minute and ended up staying up all night finishing it yet again, handing it in at 10am this morning. However, this usually works out for me as desperation usually gives me focus…even though it’s absolute torture.

While handing it in, I got my previous assignment, a 15-page paper on gender inequality in the blogosphere, back and was surprised to see an A on the cover. A’s don’t come easy in university. Heck, I barely see the first two letters of the alphabet so I thought I should go out and buy myself some stuff as a reward.

Well, I probably would’ve done it anyways since I called ahead last night and told one of my favorite stores, Subdivision in Gastown, to hold a hat I wanted for me til I could head down there today. The Know1edge x Fiberops x Subcrew mesh cap is actually in memoriam of Fiberops’ Tatsushi ‘Tabo’ Kagaya, who passed away a year ago. There are four colors but I didn’t happen to like the all black or the brown.

I couldn’t decide between the camo and the blue so I just got both. The camo especially has some great detail in the mesh pattern.

I wasn’t planning on getting anything else but just as I was about to leave, a delivery guy arrived with a couple new shirts from Devilclot, a collaboration brand between Japanese label Devilock and Hong Kong-based label CLOT. These are quite exclusive and one of the hottest items right now.

The black on black print is awesome, although I’ve been looking for the red on white one as well. This particular one comes in a gift box from the grand opening VSOP Hennessey Devilclot party.